‘Mission: Impossible 5’ Takes a Break From Filming to Fix Its Ending

Every single film production hits snags and runs into problems. Some are just a little more public than others. Now, the troubles facing the upcoming Mission: Impossible 5 have become public and they certainly sound bad on paper: Production has been temporarily shut down while director Christopher McQuarrie rushes to fix what is apparently an “unsatisfactory” ending. That’s an ominous sign for a movie that recently had its release date pushed up from December to July.

The news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter, who say that McQuarrie is working with a screenwriter (who won’t be named, credited, or paid) to fix the film’s conclusion. Of the two sources they quote in the original article, one makes them sound a little desperate, saying that McQuarrie is “scrambling” to fix his movie. The other is more positive, claiming that everything is fine and the crew is simply working to fix a problem and deliver a good movie.

Right now, we honestly don’t know the scale of the film’s problems. We do know that Paramount felt confident enough about the movie to drop it into a jam-packed summer. We also know that Paramount has shown a willingness in the past to radically rework movies that weren’t working if it meant delivering a more satisfying experience (Exhibit A: World War Z). And then there’s the fact that great movies have had troubled productions and many directors work reshoots into their schedules and budgets from the start. Some headlines may scream that everything is a disaster, but it really sounds like everyone involved in Mission: Impossible 5 have simply found a problem in their movie and are working to fix it. That’s actually good news.

Anyway, the most troublesome aspect of Mission: Impossible 5 is that it has to directly follow the incredible Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Then again, if anyone can make a satisfying follow-up, it’s the man behind the massively underrated Jack Reacher. If you ask us, this franchise is in good hands. Hands that are, you know, perfectly capable of rewriting and reshooting an ending. M:I 5 will open in theaters on July 31, 2015.